Adelante · Hispanic Heritage Month 2026
Juan Longoria
Vice President of Customer Care, Enseo
Operations and Enterprise chapter
Juan Longoria has just stepped in as Vice President of Customer Care at Enseo, after twenty years of leading people, and is building Built, Not Born, a plain-language method for leadership. His argument is that hitting your numbers and taking care of your people were never in conflict.
01What you're building
What are you building right now, and what does it make possible that wasn't possible before?
I just stepped into a new seat as VP of Customer Care at Enseo, so right now I'm building the way any good leader should start: by listening before I change anything.
Alongside that, I'm building something personal called Built, Not Born, a home for everything twenty years of leading people has taught me. What it makes possible is simple. It puts a method in plain language so leaders don't have to choose between hitting their numbers and taking care of their people. I never believed those were in conflict, and I want more leaders to see that it's buildable.
02What it took
What did it take to get here that people don't see?
People see the title. They don't see a kid from San Benito working the fields in Michigan with his family every summer. They don't see the years I bartended without a real plan, or the "short-term" call center job I took to help cover tuition. They don't see the degrees earned one class at a time, or moving my family across the world for a role I had never done before.
Mostly they don't see how many times I was scared and went anyway. Every good thing in my life is on the other side of a moment I didn't feel ready for.
03Who carried you
Who carried you, and what did they teach you that you still use every week?
My dad never lectured me. I just watched him give every task and every person his full effort. What I took from watching him became my own rule: if you're going to do something, learn to do it well, then make it easier for the next person to follow.
My mom carried me too. She built a small business out of nothing and reminded me that if I didn't take school seriously, the fields would be waiting. And along the way, people gave me a chance before I had earned it. I try to be that person for someone else now.
04For the leader coming up
What is the one thing you'd tell the leader coming up behind you?
Don't wait to feel ready. Confidence rarely shows up first. Courage does. You move first, while your hands are still a little shaky, and confidence catches up once you've proven to yourself that you can.
And when you get where you're going, turn around and make it easier for the next person to follow. Leadership was never something any of us were born into. It's something we build.
Confidence rarely shows up first. Courage does.
05Adelante
Adelante means forward. Where are you taking your function, your company, or your industry next?
Forward, for me, means keeping customer care human while the tools around it keep changing. Technology is what people see. How they are treated when it matters most is what they remember.
I've spent my career believing care is where trust is won or lost, and I'm grateful to be at a company that already leads with service. My part is to help build teams that hold high standards and full humanity at the same time, and to keep showing the next generation of leaders, especially ones who look like me, that the room is open. You can't be what you can't see.
The recognition · Operations and Enterprise
Juan Longoria is Vice President of Customer Care at Enseo and the author of Built, Not Born, a method for leaders who refuse to choose between results and people. He is recognized in the Operations and Enterprise chapter.
Meet all the Adelante leadersThe Floor
Every leader recognized in Adelante answers a short set of questions in their own words, and the answers they approve go into the 2027 book.
